Amazon extends Prime Day discounts to 4 days as retailers weigh
tariff-related price increases
[July 08, 2025] By
ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is extending its annual Prime Day sales and
offering new membership perks to Gen Z shoppers amid tariff-related
price worries and possibly some consumer boredom with an event marking
its 11th year.
The e-commerce giant's promised blitz of summer deals for Prime members
starts at 3:01 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. For the first time,
Seattle-based Amazon is holding the now-misnamed Prime Day over four
days; the company launched the event in 2015 and expanded it to two days
in 2019.
Before wrapping up Prime Day 2025 early Friday, Amazon said it would
have deals dropping as often as every 5 minutes during certain periods.
Prime members ages 18-24, who pay $7.49 per month instead of the $14.99
that older customers not eligible for discounted rates pay for free
shipping and other benefits, will receive 5% cash back on their
purchases for a limited time.
Amazon executives declined to comment on the potential impact of tariffs
on Prime Day deals. The event is taking place two and a half months
after an online news report sparked speculation that Amazon planned to
display added tariff costs next to product prices on its website.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt denounced the purported
change as a “hostile and political act” before Amazon clarified the idea
had been floated for its low-cost Haul storefront but never approved.
Amazon's past success with using Prime Day to drive sales and attract
new members spurred other major retail chains to schedule competing
sales in July. Best Buy, Target and Walmart are repeating the practice
this year.
Like Amazon, Walmart is adding two more days to its promotional period,
which starts Tuesday and runs through July 13. The nation's largest
retailer is making its summer deals available in stores as well as
online for the first time.
Here's what to expect:
More days might not mean more spending
Amazon expanded Prime Day this year because shoppers “wanted more time
to shop and save,” Amazon Prime Vice President Jamil Ghani recently told
The Associated Press.
Analysts are unsure the extra days will translate into more purchases
given that renewed inflation worries and potential price increases from
tariffs may make consumers less willing to spend. Amazon doesn’t
disclose Prime Day sales figures but said last year that the event
achieved record global sales.
Adobe Digital Insights predicts that the sales event will drive $23.8
billion in overall online spending from July 8 to July 11, 28.4% more
than the similar period last year. In 2024 and 2023, online sales
increased 11% and 6.1% during the comparable four days of July.
Vivek Pandya, lead analyst at Adobe Digital Insights, noted that
Amazon's move to stretch the sales event to four days is a big
opportunity to “really amplify and accelerate the spending velocity.”
Caila Schwartz, director of consumer insights and strategy at software
company Salesforce, noted that July sales in general have lost some
momentum in recent years. Amazon is not a Salesforce customer, so the
business software company is not privy to Prime Day figures.
“What we saw last year was that (shoppers) bought and then they were
done, ” Schwartz said. “We know that the consumer is still really
cautious. So it’s likely we could see a similar pattern where they come
out early, they’re ready to buy and then they take a step back.”
Tariffs don't seem to be impacting costs much (so far)
Amazon executives reported in May that the company and many of its
third-party sellers tried to beat big import tax bills by stocking up on
foreign goods before President Donald Trump’s tariffs took effect. And
because of that move, a fair number of third-party sellers hadn't
changed their pricing at that time, Amazon said.
[to top of second column] |
Amazon employees load packages on carts before being put on to
trucks for distribution for Amazon's annual Prime Day event at an
Amazon's DAX7 delivery station, July 16, 2024, in South Gate, Calif.
(AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)
 Adobe Digital Insights' Pandya
expects discounts to remain on par with last year and for other U.S.
retail companies to mark 10% to 24% off the manufacturers' suggested
retail price between Tuesday and Friday.
Salesforce's Schwartz said she's noticed retailers becoming more
precise with their discounts, such as offering promotion codes that
apply to selected products instead of their entire websites.
Shoppers might focus on necessities
Amazon Prime and other July sales have historically helped
jump-start back-to-school spending and encouraged advance planners
to buy other seasonal merchandise earlier. Analysts said they
expected U.S. consumers to make purchases this week out of fear that
tariffs will make items more expensive later.
Brett Rose, CEO of United National Consumer Supplies, a wholesale
distributor of overstocked goods like toys and beauty products,
thinks shoppers will go for items like beauty essentials.
“They're going to buy more everyday items,” he said.
A look at the discounts
As in past years, Amazon offered early deals leading up to Prime
Day. For the big event, Amazon said it would have special discounts
on Alexa-enabled products like Echo, Fire TV and Fire tablets.
Walmart said its July sale would include a 32-inch Samsung smart
monitor priced at $199 instead of $299.99; and $50 off a 50-Inch
Vizio Smart TV with a standard retail price of $298.00. Target said
it was maintaining its 2024 prices on key back-to-school items,
including a $5 backpack and a selection of 20 school supplies
totaling less than $20.
Some third-party sellers will sit out Prime Day
Independent businesses that sell goods through Amazon account for
more than 60% of the company's retail sales. Some third-party
sellers are expected to sit out Prime Day and not offer discounts to
preserve their profit margins during the ongoing tariff uncertainty,
analysts said.
Rose, of United National Consumer Supplies, said he spoke with
third-party sellers who said they would rather take a sales hit this
week than use up a lot of their pre-tariffs inventory now and risk
seeing their profit margins suffer later.
However, some independent businesses that market their products on
Amazon are looking to Prime Day to make a dent in the inventory they
built up earlier in the year to avoid tariffs.
Home fragrance company Outdoor Fellow, which makes about 30% of its
sales through Amazon's marketplace, gets most of its candle lids,
labels, jars, reed diffusers and other items from China, founder
Patrick Jones said. Fearing high costs from tariffs, Jones stocked
up at the beginning of the year, roughly doubling his inventory.
For Prime Day, he plans to offer bigger discounts, such as 32% off
the price of a candle normally priced at $34, Jones said.
“All the product that we have on Amazon right now is still from the
inventory that we got before the tariffs went into effect,” he said.
“So we’re still able to offer the discount that we’re planning on
doing.”
Jones said he was waiting to find out if the order he placed in June
will incur large customs duties when the goods arrive from China in
a few weeks.
___
AP Business Writer Mae Anderson contributed to this report.
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